Gerald stood looking at the door that had closed in his face. For the first time in his entire life, he could not feel a single familiar ki. It was the first time that he had ever felt truly alone.
"Now what!" Gerald said out loud. "I can't feel anyone's ki so I can't use instant transmission to get out of here!"
Gerald paced back and forth in front of the door feeling more than a bit helpless. He began to consider his options.
"Can I just blast the door? Would I get through to the right dimension?" Gerald asked himself. "What would that do to this dimensional plane? If the Ultimate Kai sealed these dimensions, then I probably shouldn't try to destroy the seal. But how else can I get to Jessica and the others?"
Gerald decided to risk it and powered up a quarter strength ball of ki and threw it toward the door. When the energy got within just a few inches of contacting the door, something repelled it away at an upward angle. Gerald looked surprised, but powered up even farther and fired again with the same results.
"Darn! Something is shielding the door!" Gerald said. Already in his ultimate form, Gerald decided to pull out all of the stops and went to his maximum power. The errant toad parts flew away and burned up and the planet around him started to shake. Gerald reached back and through a 10 X Kamehameha wave. Aimed properly, there was enough power to destroy several planets the size of the world Gerald was currently standing on.
The energy wave deflected harmlessly out into space.
"WWHHAT!! NO WAY!!" Gerald stood staring after his rapidly disappearing energy. "Well darned! Now what?"
"Think Gerald! You're supposed to be a genius!" Gerald brows knitted together in concentration. "Wait a minute! Didn't Goku say something about being able to go ethereal at Super Saiyan Five and above? What would happen if I just passed through the door? But how do I do it?"
Gerald concentrated even harder and was having trouble finding just the right application of energy to achieve his goal. At one point his legs enlarged, "No that's not it!" Then his waist disappeared completely, "No that's not it either. Darn it! I wish I would have studied a bit with Goku on this stuff!"
Gerald's legs shrank back to normal and his waist reappeared. "Okay, try again." After a few seconds of concentration, both of Gerald's arms and hands became translucent. It was like looking at a ghost.
"Is this it?" Gerald bent down and thrust his hand into the ground. His hand passed through the soil and rock like water through a sieve.
"That's got it then!" Gerald exclaimed in triumph. He concentrated and soon his entire body became ethereal. Smiling about his success, he flew straight at the door.
Only to be violently thrown up and away by whatever barrier was guarding the door.
"Unnghhh!" Gerald felt like he had grabbed a hold of a live wire carrying about a million volts. He landed almost 300 yards away, none too gracefully, and became solid again.
Gerald slowly picked himself up and rubbed his head ruefully, glad that nobody was around to have seen what just happened to him. Gerald stood looking angrily toward the door.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Everything seemed so far away, but her dreams were becoming more coherent as her slow struggle to consciousness continued.
The Janendians were scavengers that followed Frieza's ship like parasites feeding on the tyrant's wake of destruction. The Janendians were slave traders, among other things, and followed Frieza to worlds he was going to destroy to gather as many of the otherwise doomed as they could to sell in the slave markets. Just before he would blast a planet into oblivion, they would swoop in with their cloaked ships and "extract" people suitable for their slave trade. She was such an acquisition, taken from her hospital bed mere moments before Frieza blew up her home world. She was now the dreamer of dreams, the generator of all hope, with one thought in mind, to find her only remaining son, and possibly the only remaining male member of her race. The image burned bright in her mind, first of the orderly spiriting her son off and being told that he was slated to purge a planet called "Earth", then the sudden, not so gentle jabbing of a needle in her arm. She woke slightly to discover that she and several others from her hospital ward were on a ship. She raised her head and body just far enough to see out the porthole, to see her planet, her last look at a dying world, and something else, something warm and familiar. Her mate was in her mind; it was his strength that she was drawing on. But he was on fire, in pain, dying. But a look of curious triumph crossed his face, she felt it in her mind, and with a last scream of defiance, her bond stretch excruciatingly far. Her mate was dead. But the last words her mate yelled still echoed in her mind.
"MY SON LIVES ON!"
In that instant, she saw the vision, the vision of her son defeating Frieza and avenging the Saiyan race.
A hundred and seventeen Saiyans had been captured. Mostly women and children and transported to the slave markets on Cassius. They were kept in ki restraints, and sedated when they were to be moved. The slavers of Cassius was afraid that Frieza would discover that some Saiyans had been removed and seek to punish them. It became well known that Frieza wanted all Saiyans dead. So they were sold to a remote mining planet where they were not likely to be discovered by anyone.
The work was back breaking, soul crushing, even for a Saiyan. They were poorly fed, allowed little rest, and routinely beaten if their quotas weren't met. Many died from starvation and exposure. The children were the worst, and most did not make it into adulthood. Their ki restraints kept them drained; all but the energy they needed to perform their daily tasks was suppressed.
For 13 years they suffered the indignation of their slavery. She had one friend, one true friend, a female from an avian race, about her own age who came from another planet that Frieza destroyed earlier in the same year that he wiped out the planet Vegeta. The Avian race was peaceful, strong of will and spirit, but not physically strong. She helped her keep up with her quota, even though it had, at times, cost her beatings from missing her own quota. The Avian's name was Petrilleria. One day a guard, a huge ugly man with the face of malformed clay and a disposition to match, caught her putting some of her own ore into Petrilleria's bin. The man went crazy reaching out and grabbing Petrilleria around the neck with a massive four-fingered hand.
"If this bird can't keep up with her own quotas she is of no use to us!" The hulking brute closed his hand, and a crunching of bone filled the cavern.
Petrilleria let out a soft, "ah...." as her head lolled to the side at an unnatural angle, and her lifeless eyes stared into hers.
Then the bastard looked at her, directly in her eyes, and began to laugh. The laugh was cruel, and devoid of honor, or compassion.
A red-hot anger, unlike anything she ever felt before, hit her like someone forced her to eat a shovel full of burning coals. The heat within her went from red, to yellow, and then to white in its intensity.
"I..... WON'T.... LET.... YOU..." She screamed.
An aura started flowing around her. The guard stopped laughing and stepped back a few steps wondering why the ki restraints weren't working.
Then the ki restraints exploded, and melted away from her body. The bin with several hundred pounds of ore, slid effortlessly across the cavern. He was forced back a few more steps.
"GET.... AWAY..." She continued to howl
The stone in the walls around her began to melt and flow as her aura continued to intensify. The other slaves were moving toward the entrance as the ground began to shake. Rocks and sand began to fall, but would disintegrate as it touched her aura.
For just a second, her eyes went teal, her hair glowed golden.
The other Saiyans could only watch in wonder. "Is this the legend?" One of them whispered in awe to no one in particular.
"WITH..." Her scream raised in pitch as her aura continued to intensify.
The guard was now clearly terrified. He raised his hand and powered up the most powerful ki attack that he could and let fly.
It was as a gnat flying against a hurricane. The energy merely dissipated against the huge ki coming from her.
"THIIiISS!!" Her final scream seemed to take her over the top. Her eyes went teal, her hair glowed golden.
Her head turned to settle her hard eyes on her long time tormentor.
The big man was surprisingly fast as he ran, but not nearly fast enough. He just managed to press the alarm button when her fist pulled his still beating heart from his chest.
"The legend! It's true!" A fellow Saiyan prisoner gasped.
"Celritri? Is that you?" Another Saiyan female called.
"It is I." Celritri answered bending over to pick up a roll of keys and tossed them to her fellow slaves.
"Unshackle yourselves. We're getting the hell out of here." Celritri said ominously.
"Hold it right there slaves!" Blue man yelled as he led several dozen men to quell what he figured to be just a minor slave uprising. He stopped short when he seen Celritri.
"Who the hell are you?" The guard brought his stunner rod up in a fighting stance.
Before he knew what had happened, the stunner rod was snapped in a half a dozen places, and he was flying through the air all but lifeless. Most of the major bones in his body were broke, or crushed from the split second onslaught of punches and kicks.
Celritri stood in her original spot. "I'm what happens when you treat people like dirt long enough."
Celritri wanted to cut loose, and simply vaporize the rest of the guards, but she feared bringing down the cavern on the rest of the newly freed workers.
Celritri reached out with her mind and her ki and expanded her power in the middle of the guards pinning them to either side of the mine.
"What are you all looking at? Get the hell out of here!" Celritri yelled.
Several hundred men and women and a few children scrambled to the entrance of the mines. Numerous guards attempted to bar their way, but without the ki suppressors, the ex-slaves were easily able to overcome the sentries. They ran out into the sunshine. The first sunshine many of them had seen in years. They guarded their eyes as they ran away from the mines.
The guards still in the mines were struggling to free themselves, but couldn't even budge the power holding them.
"Feeling kind of helpless are we?" Celritri asked as she walked into the cavern between where they were pinned.
Celritri glowed brighter as the sound of her power echoed through the caverns. She scanned each and every one of their faces. Her anger grew as she had suffered a beating, or some other atrocity, at the hands of most every one of them.
As her anger grew, the power inside of her also grew, until she couldn't hold it back any more. It had to come out.
With a scream, she released all her power with the exploding energy of a small sun.
Just when their eyes were adjusting to the light, a white brightness lit up the ground in front of them and seconds later a shock wave knocked them all to the ground.
When the light died down, they looked back to see a huge mushroom cloud over what used to be the mines.
"Do you think she destroyed herself like the legendary did?" One of the few Saiyan men asked.
"I don't know. I wish we had a scouter." A Saiyan female answered.
Celritri appeared before them, as if from nowhere.
"Not even Saiyan eyes can track her!" The male stammered.
"We have to find a way off this planet." Celritri said calmly.
"The ore ship is due tomorrow." Piped up another avian being. "It's the only ship large enough to take us all at the same time. However, the hangar is over there, perhaps some of us could get away in the smaller ships."
"Away to where?" A reptilian looking asked. "Our planets have been destroyed by Frieza, remember? Not many races accept alien refugees, the last I heard."
He was right. Many of the people gathered started looking around the planet they were on. It was a bit inhospitable, but it had a rich soil, and could be tamed with some work. Plenty of plant and animal life could be seen.
"I say we make a go of it here." The reptilian finally said. "It's not bad, rich in minerals. I personally plan to stay."
Most everyone else agreed.
Celritri nodded her head and started walking toward the hangar.
"Celritri! Where are you going?" A Saiyan male yelled after her.
She stopped and turned. "Both of my sons were off planet when Vegeta was destroyed. I am going to determine their fate." She turned and continued to walk; as she did she relaxed and reverted to her normal form.
The Saiyans all exchanged looks and ran after her. Once they caught up with her she stopped.
"You are coming with me?" She asked.
"Of course. Vegeta is gone, and you are the strongest Saiyan left. We will not stay behind." A Saiyan female said courageously.
"Very well then." Celritri smiled. "Let's see what we have to get off this mud ball."
Inside the hangar there were fifteen or so one man pods, and one six seater interplanetary shuttle.
There were thirty-seven of them, including 35 surviving Saiyans, and two others, one from a frog like race, and the other was an avian, but with far different plumage than Petrilleria had.
"What is that?" The Avian male asked.
Back in the corner was an old ship. As they approached, there was a small plaque on the front. Celritri read it out loud.
"In commemoration of the brave men and women who risked everything to establish a mining facility for the K'lecten Empire." Celritri stopped reading.
"The K'lecten Empire was destroyed 200 years ago!" The being from the Toad race exclaimed.
"This ship looks every bit of that." Celritri said without emotion. She walked to the side hatch and fumbled around until she found a control panel of sorts, and slid back the access flap. It had two buttons so she tried the top one. A grinding noise started up as the door began to slide to one side. About half way it ground to a halt. Celritri gently pushed the door to a full open position and walked in.
"Anyone have any experience with ships of this design?" Celritri asked.
"Only the historical data. It's a sleeper ship. It only has primitive fission propulsion system which, due to the limitations of such engines, will only accelerate to about three-quarters the speed of light. This is the main control room, the sleeper chambers should be towards the back." The Toad person said. "I've never seen one of this design before. I would say that it was only preserved because of historical significance, or someone believed it held some value as an antique or curiosity."
"Okay, so let's get to work. If any of you have any expertise with any of the equipment here, then I would suggest you work in those areas." Celritri said.
"Why don't we just wait for the ore ship?" A Saiyan female asked.
"There will be no ore ship." The avian male said. "First order of business for the guards when the uprising started would have been to alert the ore ships. In all probability they will attack to regain control of the mines." The Avian male said.
"How long?" Celritri asked.
"Two, maybe three days." The Avian male replied.
Celritri turned and left the ship followed by the ones that entered with her. She then turned to the assembled people.
"We will repair this ship and leave this place. But first we have to stay long enough to protect the people here from retaliation. I will lead you if you will have me." Celritri asked
A short silence followed by a loud cheer reached her ears.
The Avian male came and bowed before her. "I am Trilliam. I will serve you to the best of my ability.
Celritri inclined her head and Trilliam rose.
The Toad man also bowed before her. "I am Grulung, I pledge my loyalty to you as well."
Celritri inclined her head again.
"Okay, we don't have time for much ceremony, so I'm putting Kumkwatan in charge of organizing the repair work. That will be the job of this crew. I will go and see about what measures can be taken to protect this planet." Celritri said. "Remember, time is of the essence."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Gogeta tried to feel Carnage's ki, but it had dropped to zero right after Goku's attack. He stretched his energy as far as he could, and concentrated hard.
"Nothing!" Gogeta said. "I know she didn't die that easy."
Suddenly, the air behind Gogeta's head shifted, he ducked just in time to keep Carnage from taking his head off with a round kick.
"I'm back, miss me?" Carnage said smirking.
"Not at all, I was just catching a few rays before we started." Gogeta answered with his own smirk.
"What a minute! Who are you? Where is that other guy?" Carnage looked confused.
"He's here too." Gogeta's twin voiced answered.
Carnage looked at Gogeta suspiciously. "Oh I see! You merged with someone else. Tricky, but it won't help you."
"We'll see." Gogeta smiled as he dropped onto a defensive stance. "First we'll see just how strong you are."
Gogeta could feel her ki again. She was obviously sandbagging quite a bit, but how much? Anyone that could hide that much ki so will would also be capable of sensing ki in others.
"Of course she's not the only one sandbagging." Gogeta smirked inwardly.
Gogeta wasn't sure how long a fusion lasted at this power level, but he didn't want to take the chance that he would run out of time before he had defeated her, so he attacked with a flurry of punches and kicks.
Carnage seemed surprised that she wasn't able to block the attacks as easily as she thought she would, and turned up her power level a bit.
"Well, that answers that question, she's sandbagging a lot." Gogeta increased his own power level and punched Carnage right between the eyes.
Buu was recovering slowly. He still looked like man that had been standing at ground zero during a nuclear test, but he was slowly regenerating. He was panicked that he couldn't feel Uub's ki at all so he snaked his body into a serpentine shape and, keeping low, slithered over to where Uub lay.
Uub was gone.
Tears started flowing down Buu's face. Not even he could bring people back once they were dead.
The ground started shaking from the force of the blows Gogeta and Carnage were inflicting on each other high over head. The contact sounded like explosions.
Buu felt Satan's ki also falter dangerously low and moved to his location as fast as he could. Buu placed his hands on his friend and brought him back from the edge of death.
"Buu!! What's going on?" Hercule sat up and looked around. At first he couldn't see anything, but his eyes finally started catching brief glimpses of the fight.
Buu pointed and Satan saw that Chi-Chi, Bulma, and a young woman were standing over Piccolo's prone form a couple hundred yards away.
Or at least, he thought that's who they were. They seemed a lot different than the last time he saw them.
Buu and Mr. Satan made their way to where the others were. Buu placed his hands on Piccolo's chest and in a few seconds, Piccolo's eyes fluttered open.
Stood up and took a look around and he quickly assessed the situation.
"We'd better get the hell as far away from here as we can. This isn't a normal fight, they are both just playing with each other now." Piccolo said. "Gogeta is probably stalling until we can get out of harms way, if that's even possible. Let's go!"
Piccolo jumped into the air and took off. Everyone else took a look at the fight and reluctantly agreed. They followed.
Carnage found her self hard pressed against Gogeta who was hitting her with increased frequency. It was the first time in millennia that she had confronted a fighter that could actually cause her some pain.
She broke off the fighting as she and Gogeta faced each other. Neither one had even broke a sweat yet.
"I see now. The two that came here weren't the chosen ones after all. They had to combine for that." Carnage chuckled. "Excellent plan the Ultimate Kai came up with. I'm impressed. But I grow weary of these games, let's say we turn up the heat a bit, shall we?"
Carnage crouched a bit in mid air, and clenched her fists to her side. Her energy started to skyrocket.
Her body began to glow as her forehead seem to elongate. Her face took on harder, more chiseled features. Her ki continued to grow as she started an unearthly scream.
A huge blast of ki exploded against Gogeta's senses and a bright light temporarily blinded him.
Gogeta's vision cleared just in time to see the clawed foot that kicked him in the face.
